In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
The Jewish Theological Seminary, one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, recently dismissed a Title IX sexual assault complaint on the grounds that the student’s misconduct happened before he was a student there. It may be that the Title IX process does not cover the sexual assault in this case. But JTS’s…
In a recent piece titled “Why Is AOC Tokenizing A Fringe Jewish Group?” Seffi Kogen, the Global Director of Young Leadership for the American Jewish Committee, argued that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez committed the “cardinal sin of progressivism” when she voiced support for IfNotNow, the anti-occupation group; the group is not “representative of American Jews,” wrote…
At least 20 people were shot dead by a Trump-loving white supremacist in El Paso, Texas on Saturday, placing the 21-year-old suspect’s rampage among the top ten deadliest mass shootings in US history. The shooter’s motive quickly appeared in the form of a manifesto, which two federal law enforcement officers told CNN they were investigating…
The Anti-Defamation League’s Ken Jacobson wants you to believe that I called Israel racist in my recent article “The Real Reason So Many Republicans Love Israel. Their Own White Supremacy.” “Characterizing Israel as fundamentally racist,” he claims, constitutes one of my “arguments.” But he has a problem. I didn’t call Israel racist because that’s not…
In a radio interview this week, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke a self-imposed silence about Israel. In addition to comparing the Trump Administration to the Netanyahu Administration, AOC said that it’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel. “We don’t engage in any other country like that. We don’t talk about the U.K. like that, we don’t talk…
For the most part, American Jews aren’t very religiously observant. Per the 2013 Pew study of American Jews, the single most widely adhered to Jewish practice in this country is the Passover seder. 70% of Jews reported taking part in the year the study focused on. That old saw about two Jews having three different…
In recent years, we have seen two lines of argument used with increasing frequency to mainstream the delegitimization of Israel. The first is characterizing Israel as fundamentally racist because it is a Jewish state. The second is identifying right-wing support for Israel in the United States with nationalist, white supremacist views. Peter Beinart impressively managed…
As reports surface about Leslie Wexner’s connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Jewish voices from many different quarters are beginning to ask whether the Wexner name is tainted. Over three decades, Wexner has built a philanthropic empire, funding a vast array of programs and institutions and building a reputation as a thoughtful and careful…
How do you have a world-viewed, prime-time presidential primary debate for a major political party in Detroit — and then just kind of gloss over Detroit? You have Democrats lead it. Two nights of sometimes contentious, sometimes fumbling debates between presidential wannabes yielded no honesty about the true state of things in Detroit. Candidates seemed…
Editor’s note: Rep. Elijah Cummings died early Thursday morning due to “complications concerning longstanding health challenges.” This article was originally published on July 30th, 2019, in response to President Trump’s comments on Baltimore. Growing up in suburban New York as the child of two parents from Philadelphia, I came to know the character of both…
Five years ago, I was sitting in my office trying to figure out options for a desperate Palestinian woman. Her family had found her and her boyfriend together in his apartment in Queens, and they were threatening both of them with physical harm. I had been told that the young couple feared for their lives….
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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